Ryan Alvis liked to imagine all kinds of things. He especially liked to imagine that he was on a space ship exploring other planets. He often talked with Cody and Hunter about this dream.

One day, Ryan collected as many boxes as he could find with the help of Cody and Hunter. They used them to build the first space shuttle ever constructed in Lovelady, Texas. Then they dressed up as astronauts and pretended they were going on a Great Sapce Adventure.

"Let's pack some presents to take to children on other planets," suggested Ryan. "What a great idea!" said the other astronauts. Ryan hurried off with Cody and Hunter and gathered flowers, toys, books and other nice things to take on their adventure.

"Is everything ready?" Ryan asked his friends. "Do we have enough fuel? Are the seatbelts tight enough? Is the computer on?" "Hold on!" shouted Cody and Hunter. "We forgot to bring lunch."

Ryan ran to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches while Cody and Hunter loaded all the gifts onto the space shuttle. "Okay," said Ryan "We're ready for anything now. One minute till blast off!"

Ryan announced: "All systems are go! Seatbelts on. Ready for countdown. 10...9...8... Will we break the sound barrier? 7...6...5... Will be be back before dinner? 4...3...2...1... BLAST-OFF!"

The astronauts made the space shuttle shake, so it felt like it was really flying. "Wait a minute!" shouted Ryan, "Why do I see flashing lights?" Ryan looked out his window. "Wow!" A real spaceship was landing beside their cardboard space shuttle!

The door of the real spaceship creaked open, then the ramp slid out. Ryan heard some funny beeps, then rainbow-colored space people started marching down the ramp. "They look friendly. At least they're smiling," Ryan told Cody and Hunter.

"Hello, Ryan Alvis," one of the space people greeted him. "We have been watching you and we are very pleased that you want to share your gifts with children on other planets. We would like to invite you and your friends to come with us and meet the children on Planet Love." "Thank you! We'd like to come," answered Ryan.

Ryan quickly wrote a note explanining where they were going. Suddenly, they were beamed into the space people's spaceship. "Wow! Look at all those controls." Ryan exclaimed. "What a gigantic computer!"

The captain asked Ryan if he would like to sit in the captain's chair and fly the spaceship to Planet Love. " I've always imagined doing this. Now my dream is really coming true!" Ryan told Cody and Hunter.

The spaceship soared into outer space. "Our speed is Mach 3. That's 3 times faster than the speed of sound," explained the alien commander. Ryan asked the space people a lot of questions about flying and exploring planets. He decided that space travel was awesome.

After they had flown for a long time, Ryan told Cody and Hunter to look at the bright lights ahead. "I see a rainbow path going up to a rainbow-colored planet," said Ryan. "That is Planet Love," one of the space people told him.

When they landed on Planet Love, the children who lived there came running to the space ship to greet the children from Earth. They told Ryan that they loved the flowers and all the other gifts, but the best gifts were the books. Everyone laughed and had lots of fun learning about each other.

Soon it was time to return home. Ryan wanted to tell everyone about Planet Love, "They have beautiful rainbows. Everyone is so happy, and all the people love each other." All too soon, in a big flash of bright, blue lishts, they were beamed back to Lovelady, Texas.

They landed beside their cardboard space shuttle. "Was this just a dream?" Ryan asked. Then he looked at Cody and Hunter in surprise. All the space travelers were wearing rainbow-colored outfits! They all smiled at the same time. There really was a
Planet Love!
Mission Complete!